Being set on the idea
Of getting to Atlantis,
You have discovered of course
Only the Ship of Fools is
Making the voyage this year,
As gales of abnormal force
Are predicted, and that you
Must therefore be ready to
Behave absurdly enough
To pass for one of The Boys,
At least appearing to love
Hard liquor, horseplay and noise.

Should storms, as may well happen,
Drive you to anchor a week
In some old harbour-city
Of Ionia, then speak
With her witty scholars, men
Who have proved there cannot be
Such a place as Atlantis:
Learn their logic, but notice
How its subtlety betrays
Their enormous simple grief;
Thus they shall teach you the ways
To doubt that you may believe.

If, later, you run aground
Among the headlands of Thrace,
Where with torches all night long
A naked barbaric race
Leaps frenziedly to the sound
Of conch and dissonant gong:
On that stony savage shore
Strip off your clothes and dance, for
Unless you are capable
Of forgetting completely
About Atlantis, you will
Never finish your journey.

Again, should you come to gay
Carthage or Corinth, take part
In their endless gaiety;
And if in some bar a ****,
As she strokes your hair, should say
"This is Atlantis, dearie,"
Listen with attentiveness
To her life-story: unless
You become acquainted now
With each refuge that tries to
Counterfeit Atlantis, how
Will you recognise the true?

Assuming you beach at last
Near Atlantis, and begin
That terrible trek inland
Through squalid woods and frozen
Thundras where all are soon lost;
If, forsaken then, you stand,
Dismissal everywhere,
Stone and now, silence and air,
O remember the great dead
And honour the fate you are,
Travelling and tormented,
Dialectic and bizarre.

Stagger onward rejoicing;
And even then if, perhaps
Having actually got
To the last col, you collapse
With all Atlantis shining
Below you yet you cannot
Descend, you should still be proud
Even to have been allowed
Just to peep at Atlantis
In a poetic vision:
Give thanks and lie down in peace,
Having seen your salvation.

All the little household gods
Have started crying, but say
Good-bye now, and put to sea.
Farewell, my dear, farewell: may
Hermes, master of the roads,
And the four dwarf Kabiri,
Protect and serve you always;
And may the Ancient of Days
Provide for all you must do
His invisible guidance,
Lifting up, dear, upon you
The light of His countenance.

One: The Gathering

Lo, on a field of green
Came a few warriors
Tired from endless battle
Of killing in senseless need
So together they thus decided
Something new must arise

A scattering of small huts
Were slowly built by these
A wall erected to protect
As something new was born
Once brave men, now farmers
Near the forgotten oceans

More came to this gathering
Begging entrance to be inside
For naught was sought but peace
A name was needed for here
As something born of the future
Everyone wanted to be in Atlantis

Two: Brothers

The wall kept those away
Attempting to invade inside
But security was stronger
As peace dwelled within
Foundations of an army
Protecting Atlantis from harm

Two brothers slowly plotted
How could there be peace
If no one wanted to rule?
They decided to take control
To overthrow those in council
Wanting to have power themselves

As with those who want
Both brothers plotted
Secretly against each other
Gaining two sets of followers
Deciding each was the best
To have order of Atlantis

One night two huts were ablaze
Two bodies found in the flames
For both brothers were dead
Greed had been their downfall
Once again thoughts were gone
But the seeds of betrayal were sown

Three: Fated Love

She was a warrior's daughter
But he was a farmer's son
Fell in love and secret trysts
On the cliff tops where nobody came
There it was where love came true

For she was promised to another
To an older warrior she belonged
Only she wished to follow her soul
But she knew they would slay him
Or cast him and his family out

Each night they made love
Under the moon and stars
Ignoring those unsafe rocks
For they only saw their hearts
They would be together, forever

But hidden caves lay beneath
The ground opened up under them
Both plunged down to their deaths
Until a search was made to find them
A discovery of the caves under Atlantis

Four: The Caves

Miles of rope were used
With flaming torches
For those brave to explore
The mysteries of the caves
Of the treasures they had

Strange encrusted gems
Found embedded in the walls
Mined and brought to the surface
Where the wealth of Atlantis
Became a legend to behold

These caves were too valuable
Outside forces would come
For years they crafted below
While warlords battled above
There would come the first king

As a city was created underground
A war council was born to defend
Never to see the slendours
That only a select few would see
But it would take a century

Three kings would come to rule
As the city in the caves took shape
Where wondows watched the ocean
A stairway of gold led down
The city of Atlantis was born

Copyright Chris Smith 2013

Take me with you to your Atlantis
Where hues of blue glisten in noons
For eternity we embrace in its promise

Are days of sober in crystallic bliss
Are nights of glacial comfort under mystic lunes
Take me with you to your Atlantis

Wash me into a tender kiss
Too soft to be witnessed but the full moons
For eternity we embrace in its promise

Beyond boundaries of mortality at this
ocean, through the skies and dunes
Take me with you to your Atlantis

Volumes and arks fill up the abyss
with painted tales of Atlantic ruins
For eternity we embrace in its promise

When love dreamily left only to reminisce
as the ink of Plato seeped in tunes
Take me with you to your Atlantis
For eternity we embrace in its promise

Take me on a trip and set my mind free.. watching all the waves as if I'm care free.. my spirit is on high as I leave all my worries behind.. sailing on this love ship to a place beyond our own imaginations. Our love will be far beyond the sea as we sail on the Atlantis.. The song says you'll come back to me but you're already here and here is where you'll stay.. my love for you is strong as if you have on a stray jacket trying to get free. But you'll rather stay trapped just to stay next to me.. Let's set sail on this Voyage to Atlantis.. watching the waves while setting  our worries free.. set sail with me and find an island that's stress free.. I'll always be there for you.. I'll always sail the Atlantis with you.. I'm your lady now and forever.. promise we'll stay together and never say our last goodbyes for we'll search for paradise out in the sea.. Sailing this Voyage to the Atlantis

The sea deep within Atlantis, humans above the surface are planning for an attack below
Yet although
Aqua Woman is making plans for Atlantis defense
It will be a force being past tense
Things for attack will be according to sequence
All kinds of sea creatures have already been informed
Atlantis is ready and not alarmed
A bounty of Ship Dweller’s, have come out with Scuba Divers with spears and explosive ammunitions to destroy Atlantis
But they are being attack by a Praying Mantis
The Mantis is the decoy
Later, the Sea God will form a fence
The Scuba Divers will be feeling the reinforced tense
Aqua Woman has everything under control
She is a warrior in showing the surface behold
The sea is her domain
As Queen of Atlantis, it’s her marvel enterprise that will remain
Her mission to all upon, be destroyed or stay away
Aqua Woman tells the surface, you have no purpose nor control and we the citizens of Atlantis will not go astray willingly
The sea belongs to us
Authority won’t be a must
You have learned that Atlantis we don’t play
Tell your Land Dweller’s to pass the word being a relay

Atlantis
Some may say that it doesn’t exist
But what if it’s only because we can’t find it
Because us simple minded humans can’t believe what we can’t see
But what if Atlantis has walls?
Walls that camouflage the beautiful city and life that resides there
The walls protect them from the outside world that is being torn to shreds,
The world that has countries going to war and dropping bombs on their inhabitants,
So what if Atlantis has walls, to protect them from the mouth-watering, beef jerky eating simple minded ideals of the common man.
The walls surrounding Atlantis are protecting their freedom, their philosophies, and their sanity.

Every man
Has his own Atlantis.

A paradise
Submerged forever.

You are
My Atlantis.

I know it's
Kind of impossible.

I'd still be searching
For answers.

Why and how
You disappeared.

And if I'll ever
Find you again.

**My dear Atlantis.

As beautiful as the famed city of Atlantis
Gloriously flourishing in her perfection
There is a place where my soul and heart is
A perfect place without grief or deception

Where my heart is always merry
And peace blossoms like the cherry
The sun smiles at me gently caressing
My body as the birds sing melodies-
So beautiful they keep me guessing-
The beauty of future melodic memories

Like the Cedars of Lebanon
Beautifying the palaces of Ethiopia
Purity, love and perfection adorn her every season.
This place is within me; this place is Utopia

Did you travel to Atlantis?

I Journeyed there last night.
I glimpsed
a Mother and a Daughter
in a silvery sort of light.

They held a rectangle of metal,
a mirror of some kind.
They stored up all of the images
reflected in their minds.

Did you travel to Atlantis?

I saw a figure along the path
and wondered.
If it might be you?
Standing in the star beams
as if you didn't have a clue.

I tried to crack it open,
to capture all I had seen.
To hold this new found wisdom
and ponder what it could mean.

Did you travel to Atlantis?

Was it ever really there?
Or only conjured in the visions
on the planes of who knows where.

It’s almost 6, and the night is fighting with the last rays of sun,
Its armor and sword are both stronger the glow of sun, Stars comes out like your eyes, breathing down my neck,
Sitting across the Chinese restaurant in, with a cigarette dangling in your fingers blazing as harshly as bitumen laying on road as your skin on my skin was last night
You have been constantly eying me like I am breast of the freshly cut chicken,
I take slow sips of my beer, opening and reopening my fortune cookie, but it’s already been cracked and my fate has been sealed,
I pity the planets and us, we all are stuck in our orbits, and we always talk about the corruption in Russia and about pirates in Somalia,
We take detour of this city, and only this one, driving circles around the Wal-Mart, buying coffee beans and condoms,
I quiet my raging mind, which writes essays about the Greek gods and Atlantis; it fights with the night, but night plays word-games,
It twists its words into lyrics of lovers and pours them in my mouth, and twists its fingers in my ******
Its, almost 8, there are two bottles on the table, emptied like my heart, your ash tray full like your lungs with smoke and lust
Its 8, and sky is cobalt with streaks of lighter shades passing through like the Helicopters on Independence Day and I take this as my sign, and leave 20 dollar bill and a letter which screams “I’m gone”,

Bustling street and a Vegas sky welcomes my heart to the possibility of finding Atlantis.

Born on the eve of a blue-yellow moon
Days and nights spent looking for you
A fool, a wretch, at best a buffoon
The seas are alive with the memory of you

The sailors they talk of your beauty and grace
But warn of your loves sweet deadly embrace
I’ve won and I’ve lost at the gates of your feet
So my father promised me he did on that day
My quest for your shores would not fade away
He said, you'll die a young man, and he promised I’d meet
An Atlantis to live for, to match my conceit

So I beg and I borrow
I scavenge and rave
Before my own birth was I already your slave?
So my head will rest on eternal tomorrow
As the search stretches on I question, Atlantis, my sorrow?

Alone and at sea, yet still I rejoice
After all of this time the manifest of your voice
and I see it now
It is just in view
Atlantis my salvation
I am coming to you

Oh Atlantis where art thou?
Deep within the abyss, far beyond the maze of madness,
bewildered in the wilderness, hungry 40 days.
Hidden from thine eyes are journeys unexplored
where life begins within.

How do I summarize what lies within the mind of your mankind,
being of a kind, man in kind.
Concealed in the center of your mental’s universe,
dictating life’s travesties and endeavors.
Stories unfold, as the ages pass unfolding reality, unraveling the mystery
of the conscious deep inside.
For what hath thou experienced?
And what doth thou have to give?
Wisdom forever disputes thine intellects irregularities.
Forewarning us
of the days to come
embracing the adventures that lie ahead.

Trial dare not stop us
hinder us
or beget us.
We must fight through the mystery of your history
overcoming adversity and demise,
triumphantly striving.

Many uncharted paths lie ahead
therefore unlock your iron gates, which gives us vision.
Bid us to come in.
Release what the pulse knows true.
Breakaway from the pain that has you chained, hiding beneath,
aiding and abetting prophesy,
so that those beyond will see…

Oh Atlantis…Where art thou?

Floating
Laughing
Smoking
Singing
Flying
Drying
And hopping in again
Something sharp touches your skin
It burns
A thousand needles
Of a jellyfish sting
It has a hold of your ankle
And is pulling you downstream
You look down
It's menacing
It's laughing now
And floating
Singing
It's quite demeaning
You fight and fight
But its grip is tight
It pulls you underneath the surface
As the trees around you
Become a world without you
What is that sparkle?
It's golden, silver, bronze
You see domes and towers
Fruitstands and flowers
You quiver
The jellyfish loosens his grip
As you wipe the blood off your lip
Who would have thought
The key to Atlantis
Was in a jellyfish's grasp
Either that or this jellyfish's secretions
Were super hallucinogenic
Either way
This is cool

*wait, how do they even have a swimming pool underwater
and functioning toilets
fish don't even have thumbs
i really don't understand
****

I'm leaving Carly's place after an all day ****** that had me convinced that paradise lay in the legs of Nate's sister wearing a unicorn onesie, and as they put on Sgt. Peppers and lay there the ****** freudian passion play overcame my capacity for archetype observation and I proceeded to walk around the room thanking everybody in that space and time for the gift of starting the **** with Nate's sister, the beat changed and they turned on me and said I needed to give her space, they all became timeless aliens traveling through time to **** and I was one of them coming online in a loop, and as long as I stayed awake I would remember and not be *****. I sat cross legged holding my friend sams hands, looking into his eyes, saying aloud we're creating the universe constructing all as the three smartest people of all time, forever throughout we died but never died, as long as we could stay awake, they all wore red and I couldn't trust any of them, I fired off mad questions and demanded to know the secrets of the universe and why woman wasn't the answer, I called up to nate to bring her down to me, and generally became a raving lunatic
      after some time of sam being soulmate and accepting him forever as my lover self same image, and also calling him ugly as im ugly, then channeling Brittany through him and countless other regressive exercises, we started inhaling nitrous gas, and the world became one stretched out moment
       and I kept calling out before, all the way up, as it were the secret spell with a handshake to fool the devil
         I thought Nate a mad spirit habituating this plane as a long gone failed hero plagued by the madness of wanting to **** his sister and forced to watch all his friends be aware of their own lust, so that pushed him into clowning, which he is an expert, that primal lust took me up and id taken a holy mandate to **** this beautiful creature and ascend to paradise,
when they slipped her upstairs they left her rainbow onesie, i felt heaven become another step remote and my faith tested, I resolved to be the last awake and never die, I walked up to the attic, and saw the light beaming from the window


            Sam dropped me off at the press grill so I could eat some grub,
then I met up with Tyler for a drink somewhere while he told me his story of meeting a guy in a skyline chilis bathroom drunk at 3 am, he said the guy was standing at the ****** but wasn't *******. Ty asked him if he was done and the guy put Ty in a chokehold with his pants down, according to Ty the cops came in and he was putting clean shots into the guys mug, he is contemplating leaving town before they can indict him for felonious assault, I told him Canadas nice but Venezuela doesn't have an extradition treaty, come to think of it neither does Cuba, but Ty is too proud for that probably
   anyways we meet Carly being a dancing beauty in a high falootin joint with string lights called Julep, the only reason to mention it is because as we were leaving a guy was bent over the rail vomiting and looking wretched he noticed us watching him as we smoked our cigarettes off to the side and immediately decided that he wasn't some kind of side show freak to be gawked at, he became threatening in the most base and pathetic way a human can, and his bride came to tell us to ******* with her father, father of the bride shaking my hand, we eventually left that scene and walked to Oddfellows where I saw Sam Cohan and he bought me a beer, good chap, we talked until I stepped toward Carly, Tyler and a fine looking strange *****
I touched Carly and received an awkward unmemorable introduction to the strange *****. She walked away but lurked and locked eyes with me as the evening rolled on
later Carly told me that the girl demanded to meet the guy who looks like Heath Ledger, a sure fire ****, so Carly is grinding on my **** and my backs to the bar and Tyler already got me a beer, and there I was, a pirate king
I took Carly out after the lights came on, and was going to give Tyler the run of my place, he disappeared into the night and I showed Carly my favorite smelling tree, a pink mimosa still in bloom late July, we almost ****** on my car, until I went back to her place and we ****** until $430, rising at noon, I left telling her we had an hour to get ready to journey to Findlay for Jim's wedding
I showered and brushed my teeth and collected my suit and put it on without a tie
I picked up Carly and set out upon the road, but made a quick stop for a bite
two deaf guys ordered in front of me and the kid working the register said my glasses were cool, along the way I was telling Carly the story of how I wore make up for the first time to a middle school dance, and she said she had to *****, I didn't believe her at first until she tried to stick her head out the window half way rolled down, I managed to get it down all the way and wet streaks of human gut waste caught the wind and splattered my window
we pulled over and I went to get her some napkins to clean herself off as I squeeged the car, she tried to wipe the window with the napkins, sweet girl. The wedding started at 3:30 and we didn't have more than five minutes to spare, she found her vape pen 20 minute out as Heather started to send me worried messages, as I was set to read a passage, little did I know that I was leading off the whole affair, I arrived and was quickly rushed to meet the mothers and have a boutonnière pinned to my lapel , the women all looked stunning and I congratulated each in turn as they shoved a program in my hand, Tiffany took me through the drill, we walked up to the stage and took our places on the bench, looking out at the beautiful shining faces,


I was the only one not wearing a tie, but thats not important, I saw Jim and embraced him with all the love I could muster, he looked at me and said that he knew I would make it, that he knew that he just had to trust the flow, and I would appear in the nick of time, the pastor threw his hands in the air and welcomed the families, the mothers lit candles, and then Tiffany looked at me and said that it was my turn, I stepped up to the Beema and gazed out over the crowd, trying to summon something clever, nothing good came to mind and so I opened my mouth and said, "a reading from Genesis" and then put every fiber of my being into reminding the room that it is Gods will that we be fruitful and multiply. I'm told I slammed my hands down for emphasis and let out a hearty amen, a man's man's amen, and turned and took one giant step off the podium with two baby stairs, I gracefully flowed into the bench having averted a complete embarrassment, and then tactfully left the stage with Tiffany after her read.   Jim looked at me after mine with a nod, and I said the word strong, that read cemented my status as a star of the party, and the mojo flowed, I was called the cash guy by the hotel, for checking in as Atlantis Grosshammer, $200 depost, we drank and danced and an old lady came to me to say that I have a beautiful soul
I thanked Jim's father for helping to create my friend, and danced around bottles
the cake was good
I told Carly I always catch the brides garter, at every wedding I've ever been. I saw Jim's men assemble for his toss, I let the men come and put myself in the mix, Jim turned his back and had a misfire,
the temptation to collect it passed all of us by thankfully, and he was set to fire again, it came to me and I snatched it out of the air, cold as ice I walked off the floor only with eyes for Carly not even saying a word to Jim, I put that thing on my head and went back to Jim threw him on my shoulders and swung him around like we were in a broadway musical
two kids playing in the street,
he said its the best moment, and so it goes

There are so many poems
I could write
if only
you were not an ocean away
but your eyes are like
a ripple into the sea
and the words you've held on to
left your body
shipwrecked and crinkled

If only your fingers
could find mine
underneath the ocean
underneath the surface
beneath the soil
the fire the land
where reality fills a gap
where imagination
sinks in

The world may pull
you from your sleeves
but Atlantis
can reach you
from the weakest parts
of your knees
to the lines on your
lips

There are so many poems
I could write
if only
you were not an ocean away
If there was an alternate universe
I would be writing
your name across the
spider web stars

I would dig into the deepest
parts of your mind
where you keep all
of your bad thoughts

I would collect each of them
with my bare hands
and I would remind you
"this is how I fell in love
with you."

there’s a lot of things that people say never existed,
like atlantis, and the love between you and i,
but i am not here to confirm or deny either assumption,
merely to speculate what a world would be like
where you can breathe underwater,
and i can drown comfortably,
and we are together in a place that isn’t real.

before i get ahead of myself,
i’d like to talk about sailors,
whiskey-drunk and singing sea shanties,
and i’d like to talk about pirates,
and the difference between the two.
what i really mean, obviously,
is that i’d like to talk about sirens,
and music, and keaton henson in the middle of the night.

things hit differently when it’s three in the morning;
i’ll be able to shop for groceries and write essays
and exist like a real person until nighttime springs around,
and then i’m lying on my bed catching stars
on the ceiling, hitting myself on the head
to deserve a glimpse of you.
only when everything goes murky,
and i see atlantis in the mist of reality,
am i satisfied.

am i satisfied?
it’s a loaded question, yes,
but we’ve talked about pirates
and we’ve talked about grocery shopping
and i think we’ve exhausted the laundry list of small talk,
so let’s talk about atlantis, instead.
let’s make plans like we used to,
and you can use my spontaneity
to make another girl love you,
and i’ll be alright as long as i have a bank of imagination
and a sea to drown in.

sorry - i don’t mean drowning.
i mean that everywhere is connected in some convoluted way
by oceans, and if i can stretch my heart miles out
then maybe i’ll find something that i can hold onto
when the world is moving too fast for me to grasp onto anything
except the possibility that one day,
i will die, and my body will sink,
and perhaps you’ll sing siren-song at my funeral.

Let’s take a silver train underground
to the back streets of Atlantis
thru the corrugated iron roots &
then to the peak itself, to the
saddle of the last ridge past strewn
                             boulders,
finally meandering thru cascading snow
wearing miner’s hats on the perpendicular
                                       dark night &
going up to the edge of the Southern Cross
where we reach at last the pure white
                            glistening glaciers &
                 begin to chant over bones in rags
                                       of Scorpio
Armless in the sticky substance how could
         they ever have had a chance?
         Permission will not be required
         only poems of blood offered to
                 the memory of TREE
         It is not ice which is eternal
         but the fury of the absolute
         separating the void from the spirit
                                      of man,
         uplifting like life when it is used
                                against itself,
         that is, Radical Love -- & again, we
         are reduced to living beings
         Caught by the instant
         we are taken away
         We live in the imprint of the flame
         & we are helmeted within the internal
                                              blackness
         where the ray begins its passage
                    across the indignant sky
Vain clouds uncaring in a tangle of
                                       crossbeams
culminate in the hermaphroditic mirror
                   of the epileptic dancer
                              asleep
                        And during sleep
                        the light is joined
                           to the light
     It is all a matter of getting up
and then to abandon the pain
It is there that the journey beings
     in the self generated flame of
        Spontaneous Combustion
            (Swayambhunath)
    The main line running counter
    to the triangle comprising the
    MAELSTROM, the DOLDROMS & the
    SARGASSO SEA where sleeping Atlanteans
                                       dream forever,
     this line, this battlefield of the ages,
     crosses the divide of my most wandering
     backdoor heart.
     We will all have to go
     if we want to reappear
     in the rhythm of the ritual
     It’s the wheel of fools spinning
             over my bed
     If I put my left foot first
     they will find a way to call me
                      by that name
     tracking tremors
     like glyphs
     on drunken walls
     in the negative palace
     just before taking eave
     of my senses
     the white powder dissolves
     in the sunlight
     & making noise like a peacock
     he hops on one foot up the mountain.

The moon rose up, the sky is naked,
His world is empty, the stars are faded,
He never gives up, completing his deed,
He’s looking for lost city, indeed.

He passed through deserts and storms,
Best friends were whiskies and rums,
Heart was destined to cold rooms,
That left him with aches and bruise.

Great walls on horizon, surrounded with high waterfalls,
Place reminds of paradise with its colorful butterflies,
He found his Atlantis, the mission is done,
The aches are healed, the pain is gone.

He woke up to see the blue sky,
Endlessly watch birds fly,
Eyes are open, where are the walls?
Where are birds and waterfalls?

Infinite desert is the only option,
This adventure was a blissful fiction,
Forget lost city, build your Atlantis,
Build your city of delighted fantasies.

Washed ashore
By the angry ebb
Of lost Atlantis,
The ocean brims
In liquid Jade
And grains of gold.

The sun won't sleep
Under the blanket
Of the vast horizon,
But dances with
The velvet moon
At heaven's feet.

Divine rays pierce
The prismic clouds
Bleeding spectrum,
Rain that seethed
At the apex
Of nature's bossom.

They gushed forth
Like raging horses
To a thirsty basin,
That slithered down
The silver rivers
And shallow streams.

Neon vines
Creep in the floor
Of the sleeping forest
Cradled by the songs
Of Mockingjays
And willow dryads.

The zephyr hums
A joyful song
In the laughing thickets
As flowers bloom
Like newborn stars
In the undergrowth.

In the mellow heart
Of the deep forest
A *****'s cry
Echoed woes
Of the hidden land
And its deadly curse.

a new Atlantis
a place in time.
a place of joy an
a place of peace.
in heart of man.
no hate no war
in this world.
only love for
one another in.
life.walk in peace
in are daily .
share the love
of peace in life.

In the water
My Atlantis of perished dreams
Soak and sink.
Plunging heavyweight anchors as each memory hits waters grounding.
In the water
air pocket bubbles left afloat,
These are the bitting hopes I’ve left you to come and search.
These are the hopes I’ve saved within myth of my Atlantis.

I woke up in Atlantis
with a young heart;
full of panic and claustrophobia
hurting for love and a way to

   breathe underwater.

The rhymes I keep repeating in my head
regulate my pulse. But, I'm waiting for
someone to ask me to explain myself.
   Like Always.

There's  a marker in my hand,
and it just keeps leaving my name
in places. As if it has a mind of
its own. Her eyes make me nervous in
this light. I am not sure if I am

             safe.

I am Atlantis, and you, the sea.
I am glorious and ethereal; you are tangible and serene.
you are rhythmic yet unpredictable, flowing into every crevice and crevasse of Me you can.
I am not nearly as impressive without you, the force of You bearing down and on me in every way, thirteen atmospheres of pressure holding me in this ideal shape.
one of these days, you're going to crush me.
one of these days, I'm going to let you.

I was born in a time of veterans and freedom.  Or was it killing, like when we left Eden?
I was born in a time, of oceans and salt.  Or was it destruction, Atlantis had fought?
I was born in a desert, a place with a lot of hot sand.  Cleopatra, Aphrodite, Egypt, all Seeing in the Land.
I was born in a Television, Hollywood starstruck was my name.
Classic, Modern or Hipster, craving fortune and fame.
I was born a telepathic, a mind reader of such.  Seeking and giving out energy, requiring you of much.
I am deep, I am wide and I am always by your side.  Loyal, Obedient and Giving.  Taking, Fantasizing, Living.
I am quite the comic book laughter.  I comedian of sorts.  
I am quick to judge the living and cover up my warts.
Back to 1960, or was is 70 and 2?
When I was born a Scorpio, and no one ever knew.

Atlantis

A body blessed
With perfection and purity.
A pond running
Down a village stream
With grace and beauty.
Sunlight drips like honey
Through the trees,
Into the warming body—
Nature’s purest creation.

The sun breathes
Warmth into the water.
Kids swimming
In the most loving
Bedtime story,
Putting their minds
To sleep—
Just for a second,
Entranced
By happiness—
So much so,
It almost feels
Like home.

An Atlantis
That never fell—
The only purity
Left in the world.

Birds awaken,
Turning silence into song.
Splashing sounds echo.
Lotus flowers bloom
On the surface,
Shedding sweet, scented petals
Into the water—
Feeling like,
There a relic
From the lost city of
Atlantis—
Reminding everyone
Of nature’s innocence.
The sweet scent
Reminds the children
Of a mother’s hug.

This is our Atlantis—
Our purest creation.

I spent three days in a daze two years ago, and three days lost again this year. I woke up and forgot what it was like to have a heart; all around was silence and silence and silence. The type of silence that shoots straight into the very core of all you know, as if you are noise and the silence is life.

In those moments I wasn't a soul, but an ocean.

This is what happens when a human body transitions into the sea, you see. It is drowning and suffocation, and no amount of screaming produces sound. There are no cries, only the murky crash of waves and the gurgling of sea foam. It is breathless crying, sorrow and endless emptiness, as if the entirety of the universe condensed itself into the tiny space between your rib-cage, and the stars burnt out. It is as if all the stars burnt out and their deaths caused the same death in you. The same sorrow, the same pain, the same loss - only magnified.

The coral reefs are stained black, and the sand is ash. The spaces where your lungs once were are now monuments to things you have lost. There are relics in places where there should be blood, and there is death in places where life once was. And as you feel this, you know it is inescapable. You cannot swim, only sink. Your heart is tar, an anchor sinking into the depths, until you become the sea floor.

-

"Is he really worth loving with all this pain?"

"Always."

(A.H.Z)

When Auden wrote Atlantis
A poem of elegance and grace
If he'd put it on this website
It would have sunk without a trace.